


Mother, I'm Here

by IChallengeMyFate (Ealdremen)



Category: Fire Emblem: Kakusei | Fire Emblem: Awakening
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-13
Updated: 2015-02-13
Packaged: 2018-03-12 05:57:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,763
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3346097
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ealdremen/pseuds/IChallengeMyFate
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Owain and Severa's scouting mission goes horribly awry.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mother, I'm Here

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on ichallengemyfate.tumblr.com. Not a songfic, despite being a reference to the song from Bastion.

It was supposed to have been a simple scouting mission. Severa and Owain would have snuck behind the enemy lines, figured out how many Risen there were in the town up ahead, and then hurried back to camp. Instead, Severa was listening to Owain ramble about some legendary hero and gods knew what else, considering she had been trying to tune him out to focus on their mission.

“So, there was Owain Dark, surrounded by fifty Risen… He unleashed the hidden power passed down from the first exalt… The secret move, ‘Pyre of Infinite Fury and Thousand Slashes!’” Owain jabbed at an imaginary foe for emphasis. “The Risen all crumpled to his might, sinking into the ground, never to torment another soul again.”

Severa rolled her eyes and flipped her hair over her shoulder. Owain’s enthusiasm was… _slightly_ endearing, as loath as she would be to admit it, but they couldn’t afford to be caught. They were fairly far from their campsite as they skulked around in the woods. If they ended up in a fight, there wasn’t any hope of reinforcements.

“How stupid are you?!” Severa demanded with a snarl. “If you keep shouting and jumping around like a _jester_ , they’ll find us.”

“Ha! Owain has no fear. It’s in his blood to fend off hordes of Risen on his own.” He grinned at her, and Severa clenched her fists.

“Blood has _nothing_ to do with skill.” She shot him a dirty look, but he didn’t seem cowed at all by her, still smiling in his usual stupid Owain way. “What would _you_ know about fighting Risen on your own, anyway? The last time you got fought alone, you got a huge _gash_ on your back.”

“All heroes have scars!” Owain protested; so loud was his objection that nearby birds took off into the air and soared away, the din of their frustrated shrieks filling the former silence.

Severa clamped her hand over Owain’s mouth; he mumbled something angrily, trying to claw her hand off, but she held fast. With a slow glance around, Severa made sure that there weren’t any enemies laying in wait. Once she was certain that nobody was around, Severa brought her face closer to his to glare at him, and he returned the scowl. The proximity was almost a little embarrassing, but she focused on her indignation, as she always did, to get her mind off her petty emotions.

“Listen, Owain _Dork,_ ” she muttered, keeping her voice low. “If I get hurt because you were too busy living in your delusional fantasy world, you’re gonna pay.”

She removed her gloved hand from his face, satisfied that she’d made her threat clear. The moment she let go, Owain retaliated, “Nobody’s going to get hurt. Except for some Risen. Owain the legendary hero would _never–_ ”

“Owain? The legendary hero stuff was cute the first time, but now it’s just getting annoying.” Severa crossed her arms and sighed. With another exaggerated roll of her eyes, she continued through the forest, taking extra care to keep an eye out for any potential assailants who heard Owain’s ridiculous shouting. Owain followed her along, staying mercifully quiet.

The trip seemed to take even _longer_ with Owain’s silence. Severa felt anxious whenever she looked back and met his downcast expression, almost worried she had broken him. With a quiet sigh, she shook her head. It was _his_ fault for being loud in the first place! It wasn’t _her_ fault if Owain’s feelings got hurt because he was busy being stupid.

Still, Severa couldn’t shake off the guilt. As they trudged along through the forest, the urge to apologize to Owain grew stronger and harder to ignore. She bit her lip and fidgeted with her gloves. Despite herself, she found herself starting to rehearse what to say to him – she could apologize for being rude without forgiving his behavior. As long as she made that clear, it would –

There was a rustle in the bushes. Both Severa and Owain grabbed their swords, launching forward. An arrow zipped by them that Owain parried with a swift strike of his sword, and they descended upon the archer hiding in the undergrowth. In a flurry of steel, Owain shouting a ridiculous move name as they slashed, they shredded the Risen archer to bits. The ghastly moving corpse started to melt away into smoke. Severa groaned, her earlier irritation returning, not to mention a headache. She adjusted her tunic, knowing that the quick fight had probably messed up her clothes a bit.

“Great. They definitely know we’re here. We have to turn back–” Before Severa could register what was happening, she was on the ground, Owain having thrown himself on top of her. A red flush leaped to her cheeks, and she shouted, “Get _off!_ ”

Shoving him off, Severa scrambled to her feet. Another Risen stood nearby, staring at her with its glowing red eyes. In a single bound, she closed the distance between them. The Risen didn’t have any time to react, and she stabbed the monster through the heart, smirking with satisfaction as it melted away as the previous one had. Remembering Owain, she whirled around to berate him.

“You _idiot!_ Instead of–” Severa’s words trailed off into a stunned gasp.

Owain was still laying where she had shoved him off of her, a dagger firmly lodged into his back. Blood was seeping into his yellow coat already. She rushed to him, kneeling down, panic starting to set in as Owain continued to bleed. Whenever someone had gotten injured before, Brady was always there to patch them up, or Laurent would be explaining the “scientifically” best way to dress a wound…

Inspiration hit her. She lifted one of the tails of Owain’s coat and sliced it off with her sword, proceeding to do the same with the others. This would do until they could get back to camp and get proper treatment for the wound. Severa reached for the dagger, hesitant to tug it out. When she just touched the hilt, Owain flinched in pain.

“This… is going to hurt, but you’ll be fine.” Severa grimaced as she tightened her grip on the dagger. “Don’t cry.”

It sounded like perfectly applicable advice to herself, too.

She yanked out the dagger, and Owain’s cry of pain split the silence. Despite what had happened, Severa very nearly berated him for screaming again, just barely keeping herself in check and hating how naturally her anger came to her. Severa set the dagger aside and got to work as quickly as she could.

Propping up Owain on her leg so she could bandage him all the way around, she wound the coattails around the injury, hoping it wasn’t so tight that Owain would struggle to breathe. Once she had tied up the coattails, Severa felt certain that it’d be alright now. Her relief turned to horror when his blood started to drench her makeshift bandage.

“We have to go,” Severa said sharply. “Come on! There’ll be more if we just stay here!”

“Don’t… feel good…” Owain’s voice was distant, and Severa’s gaze turned to the dagger on the ground. The sight of it coated with Owain’s blood was sickening enough, but she noticed that even the clean part of the blade seemed to be slick with some kind of green-tinted liquid. A strangled gasp escaped her, and she touched her hand to Owain’s forehead, recoiling at how hot he felt.

Poison, she realized with terror. Of course Owain wouldn’t have been felled so easily to a regular dagger. Severa leaned down and threw Owain’s arm around her shoulder, slowly rising to her feet. At first, Owain didn’t respond, but eventually he seemed to recall how to move, and he staggered to his feet, putting most of his weight on Severa as he did. With a cursory glance around, she started to lead Owain through the woods back the way they came, trying to suppress her surges of panic with every labored breath he drew.

Walking through the forest had been easy enough on the way here, but with Owain barely able to stand, it turned into a hellish trial. Severa quickly learned that in his current state, Owain couldn’t lift his feet very high. Every log or large rock had to be walked around, costing them valuable time – time that they didn’t have to spare. Severa had no idea how potent that poison was. Brady had once told her that some poisons could take weeks to manifest, but others could kill a fully grown man in mere hours.

She tightened her grip around Owain’s waist almost possessively. The poison couldn’t be that bad. After all, Owain was walking. He was just a bit tired, probably from all his earlier jumping around. Maybe he would even get over the worst of the poison on his own without any help. At least, that was what Severa thought until Owain started to speak.

“Mother?” Owain rasped. He lifted his head. “I… I hear her. Mother, I’m here…”

“Gods, Owain, don’t you _dare_ waste your energy prattling on about your mother,” Severa hissed, throwing him a glare. “She’s–”

The word caught in her throat: Dead. Her eyes widened, tears starting to form at the edges. Not wanting Owain to see her acting weak, she wiped them away and kept staring forward, concentrating on the horizon instead of the wounded man leaning on her. Owain’s body suddenly felt much heavier, much less willing to move. It felt like they were barely making progress at all. She felt him move against her, reaching out with his free arm, trying to grab at something she couldn’t see.

“Mother, why’d you leave..? You were just there,” Owain murmured.

“Stop!” Severa shouted, her voice sounding less commanding and more desperate.

Owain didn’t even flinch at the sound. She pulled his arm back down, but he resisted, still trying to grab whatever his delirious, fever-ridden mind was seeing.

“But, Mother… She’s there–” He stumbled as he reached too far, nearly taking Severa with him, but she managed to brace herself and keep both of them standing.

“You’ll _die!_ If you keep wasting your energy, you’ll _die!_ ” When that didn’t work, Severa grabbed his hand with her own and held firm. It seemed to bring him back to reality, for his mumbling stopped and went back to his pained, haggard breathing.

By the time the forest thinned out and eventually gave way to a broad field, just beyond which lay the army’s campsite, Owain’s condition had only worsened. When Severa placed her hand on his forehead, he seemed more feverish than before. His steps were uncoordinated and heavy. Even a barren field like this was too much for him to walk through.

Owain realized it, too. “Leave… me…”

“If I was going to leave you, you’d be back in that gods-forsaken forest.” Owain slumped down, but Severa refused to give up. Adjusting her grip on Owain, she hoisted him onto her back, cringing and gasping at the increased weight but unwilling to let him go.

The difference in height between them made it more difficult than it would’ve been if their situation were reversed; even with his arms limply draped over her shoulders and his head nestled between one of his arms and her own head, Owain’s feet dragged along the ground, leaving marks in the ground wherever they went. Severa’s legs quivered with fatigue and from the weight of Owain, her hair matted with sweat; she could tell that he was starting to slip off her back. Every step was getting more difficult, more exhausting, more hopeless. She gritted her teeth and forced herself to keep walking. In any other situation, this would’ve been impossible at best, but his shallow breaths, the only sign that he could still be saved, urged her onward.

“Father,” Owain muttered.

“Don’t talk, you id–” She caught herself. The last time she had insulted and screamed at someone she cared about, they hadn’t come back alive. “Don’t talk… Owain.”

He groaned in pain. “No, not… not gonna live… Father, I died like you… Protecting…”

“I didn’t drag you all this way so you could die somewhere else! You’re going to _live!_ ”

He still kept muttering to himself, words slurred by both fatigue and fever. Severa was certain he was mumbling deliriously about his parents, maybe trying to tell her something about them. But as she listened closer, it struck her that Owain was talking _to_ his deceased parents, not _about_ them. Somehow, she had to get him to conserve his energy. If he wore himself out, there was a chance he…

Severa shook her head, dislodging more of her sweat-soaked red hair into her face.

“If you promise not to interrupt, I’ll tell you a story. Gods know that you’re always acting like you _live_ in one.”

Too harsh – even now, her words sounded too harsh, and she nearly swore aloud at how terrible she was. Weakly, Owain nodded, and Severa became acutely aware of just how nervous she was. Taking a deep breath, she started, focusing her gaze on the horizon.

“Once… Once upon a time, there was a boy who wanted to be a hero. He lost his parents at a young age. So he vowed that nobody else would ever have to go through the same loss he did. He was bombastic and… loud… but nobody could deny that his heart was in the right place.” Severa’s heartbeat was thudding in her ears. “He met… a lonely girl who also lost her parents. She pushed him away, screamed at him, called him horrible things, but he… he never… stopped believing… that she was a good person underneath.”

Severa clenched her teeth. She was grateful that Owain couldn’t see her tears, considering she couldn’t risk letting him go to wipe them away. Steeling herself with another unsteady breath, she continued, simultaneously hoping he was and wasn’t listening.

“O-Over time… this girl… she started to rely on him, trust him… Even if… she never showed it…” A knot formed in her throat; why was it so hard for her to just tell the truth? “Um, this girl… she always loved that boy. He was always… a hero to her.”

Here she was, carrying a dying man on her back, and she was worrying about her stupid feelings. Somehow, getting that off her chest hadn’t made her feel any better. If anything, Owain just felt heavier than before, and she was all the more conscious of the sound his feet made as she dragged him along. He stayed quiet, and Severa worried that maybe she had said something wrong.

“O-Owain? Owain?” Severa gulped. Fear gripped her, and her body stiffened in tense anxiety. “Owain, just… do something… if you… if you heard me.”

Her breathing grew more panicked when he didn’t respond, and then she realized that she hadn’t heard him groan in pain or rasp for breath. Severa stopped, dreading what she might realize, but with her body completely still, she noticed that his wasn’t moving, either.

In fact, he wasn’t breathing.

Desperate to prove herself wrong, Severa unhooked Owain’s arms from her, realizing how stiff his hands were. Her grip failed her, and Owain’s corpse fell back onto the ground with a final-sounding thud. Severa stared with horror, clamping her hands over her mouth to keep herself from shrieking. Unable to stand from her exhaustion, she fell to her knees by his side, and something in her snapped.

“You _idiot!_ ” Severa screamed, shaking Owain’s body. “You never left me alone before! You were always there! Why would you leave now?!”

Hunched over him, she wailed in anguished despair, her tears falling onto his chest. Her own body shook like it never had. The weight of her guilt crushed her, and she found that she couldn’t even hold herself up. Severa collapsed onto Owain’s lifeless form, brokenly sobbing as if her tears could bring him back.

“You… You’re the worst hero…” Severa clenched Owain’s tear-stained yellow coat between her quivering fingers. “I… I… hate… you… I hate you so much…”

Petrified by guilt and despair, she laid there, continuing to weep. If she had been faster, stronger, smarter, she could have kept this from happening. She would have noticed the Risen before they could hurt Owain, or she could have brought him back to camp soon enough for him to be saved. If it had been anyone but her, Owain wouldn’t have died.

"I… hate you…"

But it wasn’t Owain she hated.

It was herself.


End file.
